As The Stew Simmers
by EhMightAsWell
Summary: Pearl tells Steven a story as she cooks dinner. This is my first fanfic so give it a read and a review if ya want.
1. Chapter 1

_**As the Stew Simmers**_

 **Chapter I**

 **Hello everyone! If you're reading this, then it is my honor to introduce you to what will be my first fanfic. Reviews are welcome! I want to be criticized for this work, so that my writing will improve in the future. Steven Universe is a wonderful show created by Rebecca Sugar, all characters belong to her, and Cartoon Network.**

Garnet was off on a mission, and Amethyst was... Somewhere. the purple gem had left hours ago on some sort of errand which Pearl doubted truly mattered. Perhaps she had discovered some new piece of junk which could be added to the horde of garbage that had already consumed her area of the temple. Pearl was fine with this, after all it allowed her to spend some quality time with her baby...Even if she couldn't truly call him that anymore, he had just had his seventh birthday! The Pearl sighed and mumbled to herself as she removed several unprepared carrots from their container and lined them up onto a cutting board "My baby is growing up."

Pearl quietly glanced about the temple. The place had changed in ways she never would have believed possible. A human domicile covered what had been the entrance of the gem's haven, and though the gem's had been preparing this place for Steven over the course of the past few years, the progress which had been made was stunning to behold. As she quietly paced around in the kitchen gathering the food which would be turned into Steven's meal, she quietly contemplated the time they had spent raising the boy, a light smile crossed her lips as she thought of the struggles their family had gone through along the way. Even with the loss of Rose, they had found a way to make everything work.

These memories brought tear's to the ancient gem's eyes. She sniffed, and removed a knife from its sheath, and with an amount of skill that would be impossible for those without years of experience, Pearl expertly shifted the knife in her hands, chopping away at the carrots, meticulously shaping each one into a form which was more appealing to her eyes. Once the root vegetable had been shaped into their new forms she lifted the cutting board to the level of the pot, and used her knife to push the carrots into the pot which became the vessel for the simmering stew.

After that deed was done Pearl let out a content sigh and looked over to the loft where Steven could be seen excitedly yammering on about some secret level he had finally reached in that new game the gem's had acquired for his tenth birthday. She shook her head and quietly mumbled to herself beneath her breath "Human's find such strange ways to waste what little time they have..." She then returns her attention to the stew and she grabs a large spoon. She idly stirs it while she yells up "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes Steven!" Though she couldn't see his face she couldn't help but smile as she heard the clear excitement in the boy's voice as she heard him yell "Woo-Hoo! I'll be down in a second!"

Pearl blinked and she yelled over to him "Not before you wash your hands Steven!" The disappointment in the boy's voice could be heard as he tried to avoid Pearl's demands"But Pearl!" With a heavy sigh Pearl stated "Don't you dare argue with me Steven. You know the rules! We wash our hands before dinner in this house." and with that the young boy relented and got off of his bed before he headed to his bathroom with a downtrodden look on his face. Once the door had closed Pearl returned her attention to the stew which had turned into a thick brown glop which brimmed with the variable menagerie of vegetables and meats the gem had so carefully prepared.

Pearl shuddered as the steam brought the smell of the stew to her nostrils. Pearl hated food. Yes, she enjoyed the process of creating it. Each step was a well defined process, which appealed to the gem's sense of order. However the consumption of food disgusted her in every possible way. First off, you shoved the food which someone had slaved over for hours into your mouth. Then you grinded that piece of art into a mush, covering it in saliva, bacteria and whatever else resided in the human's mouth. Then you had to force that mush down your throat using muscles which happened to be an entirely different horror story, until the disgusting mix finally sloshed its way down into the human's acid sacks, where the food was broken down, and decayed into bacteria ridden mush which then came out of you as... This train of thought was finally broken by the sound of a loud 'Flush!' She shuddered and went back to stirring the stew.

The door opened and the rambunctious seven year old made his way to the kitchen. He looked up to Pearl and whined "Pearl how much longer do we have to wait?" The gem glanced down at him and smiled before she stated calmly "Oh not to long, just ten more minutes."

Steven blinked and stated "Ten minutes?! But that's forever! Why'd you make me wash my hands if you were going to make me wait that long?" Pearl sighed and stated "Because you had to do it anyway...Besides you've been up there for hours, what's wrong with spending a bit of time down here?"

Steven smiled and stated excitedly "With you!" Pearl couldn't help but let out a light chuckle and state "Yes with me." She then returned her attention to the stew as Steven wandered over to a nearbye stool on the other side of the kitchen. He let out a sigh and several moments passed before a large smile crossed his lips. He then yelled "Pearl!" The gem nearly jumped and looked over to Steven with a worried expression as several dozen thoughts crossed her mind over several seconds due to the abruptness of it all"What?! Did something happen? Did you touch one of the knifes?! Oh I knew I should have just let you play your game Steven! What happened?"

As per her usual the neurotic gem had expected the worst, however Steven was just sitting there dumbfounded "I was just going to ask. Since we have a bit of time...Do you think you could tell me about one of your adventures?" He wiggled his eyebrows and smiled at Pearl. The gem nearly falls over once Steven had asked her his question as her expression shifts to being one of pure and utter relief.

She then looks back over to him and composes herself with a quick cough. "Of course Steven. What kind would you like to hear? Perhaps I could tell you about the time that we found... " Steven glances down at his feet for a moment as Pearl started to yammer on about something which was probably very interesting, but couldn't hold his attention "Hmmmmm..."

After Steven thinks about it for a moment he grins and states "One about you!" Pearl blinks and states "Me? Oh! You want a story about one of our journey's where I was a key figure!" She smiles and ponders this question before she hears Steven shake his head and states, "Nope...Just about you, and only you Pearl." For once the pale gem was unsure of what to say. After a moment she stutters and eventually she finally manages to get out "W...Well. If that's what you really want Steven..." She ponders the boy's question for a moment before a light smile crosses her lips. She then looks to Steven and states "If that's what you really want Steven, I'll tell you a story that I have never shared with anyone before, not even Garnet or Amethyst."

Steven's face blazed with pride and curiosity before he looked to her and shook his head vigorously "I want to hear it! I want to hear it!" Pearl glanced over to him and her eyes light up as she see's the excitement on the young boy's face.

"Alright...But you have to promise me you won't tell anyone." Steven grinned and made a zipping motion over his lips. Pearl arches a brow at this before she simply shrugs and starts to tell her tale "Well...It was a very, very long time ago. Your mother and I had just completed a mission when..."

Steven blinked and stated "Hey! I thought this was just going to be about you Pearl!" Pearl quietly grimaces and states "Of course Steven...But you can't expect that there won't be other people involved in it in some way right? Your mother just happens to be one of those people. Now as I was saying. Your Mother and I had just completed a mission when..."

 **And so the first chapter of our story concludes with a cliffhanger. I hope you all enjoyed this because I enjoyed writing it out for you all.**


	2. Chapter 2

**As the Stew Simmers**

 **Chapter II**

 **Well looking back on it, ending the chapter mid-sentence was a terrible idea! Now the pacing feels off, it's just something to learn from I suppose. Also for those of you reading this thank you very much! Never thought this would get any attention. Lastly thank you for pointing out the mistake I made with Steven's age in the first chapter! To clarify he is seven not ten in this story. Originally he was going to be ten, however I ended up changing it later on to fit the time line a bit better, and when I said that video game was a gift from his tenth b-day that was a hold over from the first draft. Oh well, time for me to stop babbling and for you to get onto the second chapter!**

"Your Mother and I had just completed a mission when we found a group of human's running to the temple in a panic." Steven glanced at her with wide eyes absorbing every word. He then glanced over to the stew which was steaming before he looked back to Pearl who was still telling her tale. "Now the humans came to us with an urgent plea. They had believed that someone was raiding one of their sacred burial ground, however they could not figure out exactly what was happening..." Pearl's gem started to glow for a moment before a hologram appeared on the table "The site was known as the mountain of the burning heart. For generations these people had buried their dead on this cliff face to be closer to those who they had worshiped as their gods." Steven blinks and states "Whoa... Wait what? Burial ground? That's terrible!"

Pearl went silent for a moment before she stated with hint of sadness in her voice "According to their legends the gods had fought a war against demon's coming down from the sky. Many of these 'gods' were slain in the battles which followed. In order to memorialize their sacrifice the people had them buried at the site where they believed the battle took place. They found a sapling and placed it at the top of the mountain, and for millennium this tree stood, reminding the people of the gods who had protected them so long ago."

The hologram shifted and twisted until it showed the image of a massive tree. The tree was so large that it's branches poured out over the mountainside, and it's roots could be seen curling around the base of the mountain as if it were a snake who slept, curled around itself to preserve it's warmth. On the other side of the mountain one could see hundreds upon hundreds of holes carved into it's side all of which were human shaped.

Pearl then stated harshly "The legend was foolish, nothing more than a child's tale however it was so ingrained into the people's culture by that point that to try and disprove it would have simply done no one any good. Your mother of course wanted to look into it, she wanted to call the gem's together in case the threat was anything more than what the locals seemed to think it was." She shifted uncomfortably and continued "However I insisted that I could deal with it on my own." She let out a laugh and stirred the pot "After all back..." She stops herself before she had revealed to Steven anything which might have given away their old age. Steven didn't need to know about that yet. Pearl prayed that he hadn't noticed. She glances back in his direction, but he was just staring at the unfinished stew, content to listen to her story. She lets out a sigh of relief and then goes rigid as Steven says "Pearl?" She stutters once and states "Yes Steven?" Steven blinks and states with a confused tone "Why'd ya stop?"

She blinks and then nods "Right! Right! Where were we again?" Steven glances over to her "You were just telling me about how you were going to go help those people with their mountain thingy." He twiddled his thumbs and waits for Pearl to continue. Pearl removes the lid from the pot and gives it a stir before she starts again "Yes, so for twelve days and twelve nights I traveled with the humans to their famed tree. When we got there the humans returned to their village, and I continued up the side of the mountain. When I reached the top I came to discover that I had bitten off more than I could chew."

She waves her hands in an exaggerated manner and her pearl activates again causing the hologram of the tree to reform. However now it looked sick as if there was some sort of fungus growing along its side. She did a quick spin lifting her leg and shoving it through the hologram to cause it to dissipate as Steven clapped his hands in pleasure. Pearl grinned at him before she returned her attention to the stew and the story. "But yes, upon realizing that there was more going on than I originally had been lead to believe, I decided that I should to go back to the human village for more information." She lifted the pot's lid and glanced down at it before she went to one of the cabinets. She proceeded to pull out a bowl and a spoon for Steven. She then grabs a ladle and fills the bowl with the stew and offers it to Steven.

The young boy shakes his head and states with his usual cheerful demeanor "Come on...Dinner can wait. I want to hear the rest of this story!" Pearl chuckles and states "I'll tell you the rest after we have dinner alright." Steven's mouth drops and he grins excitedly at Pearl "You never want to have dinner with me Pearl! I'll see you at the table!" her eyes widen as she realizes the mistake she made with her words. She never told Steven that she would eat with him. She always used the excuse that she would eat later on after she finished cleaning to avoid the meal, or that she simply was not hungry and she would have her meal later. Of course she could have just told him then and there that she didn't want to eat, but the boy was so excited, and she hated to disappoint him when he got like this.

The worst part of this was that she had never told Steven that as a gem she did not have to eat. If she had then she would not be in this dreadful situation. If she had shared that fact with him then she would have to explain other things about the gems. Which...She would prefer to avoid. The boy grins excitedly at her before he picks up her carefully crafted meal and runs off to the other room. Pearl's eye twitches and she glances down at the stew. She whispers to herself "I suppose that there are worse things in the world..."

She grabs the ladle and fills a bowl for herself before she carefully straightens out her skirt. She then calmly walks into the other room following Steven. The boy looks at her and grins happily before he takes a seat and starts eating. She fills her spoon with the liquid and she thinks to herself 'You are a gem... You have lived for thousands of years...' She then lifts the eating implement up to her mouth as her hand starts to shake and she forces it in. After a moment of disgust, her eyes start to water and she smiles back at Steven.

 **Well the soup might be done, but our story sure isn't! Although I suppose it will be soon. This was never meant to be a long epic after all, I just wanted to dip my toes into a bit of short story writing.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter III**

 **Well here we are again. Welcome to the third chapter of As the Stew Simmers. I hope you all have enjoyed the story thus far.**

Pearl struggled to finish the first bite of her stew as Steven watched her in confusion. He raised a brow and stated "What's wrong Pearl?" The gem looked as if she was about to sob but after she finishes chewing her first spoonful, and tears stream down her face once she actually swallows. Upon hearing Steven's question she releases a high pitched laugh which almost sounded like a scream. She then grins at him and states "Wrong?! Nothing's wrong! Why would anything be wrong! It's just a bit of food after all!"

Steven glances down at his bowl and takes another bite out of it. He then glances over to Pearl and watches as she struggles to devour another spoonful. He places his spoon back in the bowl and states "I'm not sure that I'm hungry right now Pearl." The gem blinks at Steven and places her spoon back into the bowl before she takes a moment to regain her composure and states "Why don't you eat a bit more Steven? You've barely touched your stew. I'm sorry if I scared you there, I'm just not feeling at my best right now. The...Steam! Yes Steam! Which comes off of the pot when I cook generally throws off my apatite."

Steven glances at her with that same confused look for a moment before he simply shrugs off Pearl's odd behavior. He spends the next few minutes quietly eating the rest of his meal before he looks at Pearl who was watching him from across the table. He then shows her the empty bowl "Now can we get back to the story?" Pearl smiles and states "Yes...But let me do the dishes first, you can get ready for bed while I take care of that. Oh it will be just like when you were younger!"

Pearl couldn't help but grin as she thinks back to telling Steven stories in his crib. Steven nods and runs out of the dining room leaving his plate behind. Pearl shakes her head and chuckles at the boy's antics, she retrieves his dishes and silver wear. She then patiently waits for the sound of the shower starting up before she calmly walks back into the kitchen.

She glances at her unfinished bowl of soup and shivers "Be more careful next time Pearl. He won't always be that understanding. Why he might even start asking questions!" She throws the contents of her unfinished bowl of stew into the trash bin. She then starts cleaning the dishes with a sponge. She quietly hummed to herself before she let out a sigh and thought to herself 'Tomorrow I'll get that dishwasher installed.' Once the dishes were clean she covers what remained of the stew in the pot with saran wrap and tucks it away into the fridge for Steven to consume later on. Pearl then surveys the kitchen for any remaining garbage and takes a broom through the place for good measure.

Eventually Steven emerges from the bathroom in a set of yellow pajamas. He wanders over to the kitchen and Pearl looks down on him before she asks "Did you brush your teeth?" Steven nods although he kept his mouth closed, and glanced away from Pearl. The gem smirks and thinks to herself 'You can't hide from me that easily.' She raises a brow and states "Come on now Steven you know the rules, you can't go to bed unless your teeth are brushed." Steven frowns and opens his mouth showing off the little bits of stew which remained "But Pearl! I was good tonight! I even shined my gem see!" He raises his pajama shirt showing the pink jewel embedded into his stomach which he had shined to the point where if you looked into it one could clearly see the kitchen, and themselves reflected back at them. Pearl lets out a light sigh and states "Steven as I said before. You know the rules of this house. I want you to follow them. Now brush your teeth mister!"Steven huffs and heads back into the bathroom.

Several minutes pass until Steven emerges once more and Pearl states "Let me see them again." Steven opens his mouth wide showing his white teeth and Pearl gives a content nod. Steven grins and states "Can we please get back to the story Pearl!?" The gem nods and leans the broom against a nearby wall before Steven takes her hands and pulls her towards his loft. Pearl jogs to keep pace with the young boy before she states "Whoa now Steven slow down! There's no need to run!" Steven releases her hand and heads up the stairs before he trips knocking his head on the hard wood of the steps. He whimpers as he holds his head and Pearl rushes to his side "Steven are you alright? Did you hurt yourself? Come on now don't hide what happened from me. Let me see it!" Steven sniffs and moves his hand out of the way which shows a light bruise forming.

Pearl gasps and states "Let me go get something for you...Hang tight Steven!" She then rushes off of the steps and heads into the bathroom. Panicking she grabs bandages, rubbing alcohol, and ice. She then rushes back to her baby.

Steven glances at her and sniffs again before he puts on his best smile and states "It's alright Pearl. It doesn't hurt that much! Why I doubt you can even see it!" The boy smiles at her and shows her his face. The bruise on his forehead had already started to turn to a deep grey shade. Pearl covers her mouth with her hand and states with fear in her voice "It looks terrible. At least let me..." she closes her eyes for a moment and quietly contemplates what she will do. She then fills a bag with some ice and holds it against the bruise. Steven grumbles and states "Pearl it's to cold!" Pearl rolls her eyes "Steven this is for your own good, just give it a second!"

Several thoughts crossed Pearl's mind and she thinks to herself 'Why must Garnet always be away at the worst of times. She would know what to do about this, her future vision could have prevented this. She could have distracted Steven long enough for me to get rid of that meal and I wouldn't have had to eat that vile stew.' The thoughts brought on by her failure continued to worsen until Pearl couldn't help but think 'What was Rose thinking leaving him with me? I'm just a Pearl."

Steven glanced up at Pearl and took note that the gem who obviously had something on her mind. He tugs on the bag of ice and states "Pearl you promised me that you'd finish that story." Pearl took a moment to return to reality until she finally stated "Hm? Oh...That's right isn't it!" She pulls the ice away from him and gets up before Steven takes her hand and heads back up the stairs. He hops onto his bed, and crawls under the covers before he yells "Story for Steven!" Pearl laughs and states "Oh hush...Now where were we?" She takes a moment to recall just where they were as she enjoys the distraction from her self doubt.

 **And so ends the third chapter of our story. I might have turned Pearl's motherliness up to 11 with this one. See yall next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter IV**

 **Alright this is the fourth and final chapter of the story. Thank you all for reading. It's been a blast to do this, and I do have another story planned since this was received positively, so keep a look out for that in the future. Anyway let's get on with the show.**

Steven looked at Pearl and grinned before he stated "You just told me that you had gone back to the village to find out what was happening." Pearl sat herself on the bed beside Steven before she pondered just how she should share this story with Steven. After a brief moment of silence she nods and returns to telling the tale "When I reached the village, I went to their elder and asked them just how had the site been compromised. He told me about how someone had been pulling the people out of their graves, and pushing the caskets out. The only evidence of what was going on were several strange burrows they found in the sides of the walls of the grave. Now of course I was curious as to how anyone could burrow holes into the stone without being noticed. I kept that in mind and I asked him a second question. When did the tree start to grow that strange fungus on its side."

Pearl watched as Steven's eyes started to glaze over as he slowly fell asleep. It was almost his bed time after all. She smiles softly at him and runs a hand through his hair "The elder told me that it had started several months ago when the first bodies had disappeared. I assumed that there had to be some sort of connection, but I needed more information. So I asked the village elder permission to climb down into one of the sites. He agreed, and so I made my way back up into the mountain, and when I reached the top I looked down at the cliff face. I noticed that the scaffolding which the villagers used to reach the graves was old and rotted so I made my way as carefully as I could."

Pearl quietly thought back to how she had shape shifted into a rat to make her way across. It hadn't been the most pleasant experience, but she had done what she had to do. "Once I made my way into the grave I discovered that yes there were holes in the sides of the sites. What's more, the holes had a strange residue oozing out from their sides." Steven covered his face as he seemed to be growing more fearful of the story. Pearl took note of this, and in order to make the tale a bit more tame for Steven she decided to skip the part of the story in which she found the corpses which had been reanimated by gem shards contained within the mountainside.

Steven glances up to her and states "And then what happened?" Pearl glances down at him and states "Well...After I finished my investigation I went back to the elder of the village. After a bit of coaxing on my part we decided that the best course of action would be for me and several of the town's guardians to stake out one of the grave sites over night. Once inside it was discovered that the fungal infection within the tree was something more... Malicious than I had been lead to believe, and it had been using the root system to burrow into the grave. After our..." She contemplated what word she would use. "Investigation. We decided that the best course of action for both the village, and the dead would be to destroy the tree which after a bit more thorough look we had discovered had been killed long ago by the fungus. We gathered what seeds we could from the tree and then lit a fire at its base. For twenty days and twenty nights it burned."

Steven looks down at his lap and sniffs saddened by the tale. He then feels two thin arms wrap around him in a hug before Pearl states "What's wrong?" Steven glances up at her "It's just sad that the tree had to be destroyed after all the time it had been around." Pearl looked down at him and states with a soft voice "Steven you must understand that death is a part of life. In order for new life to grow, the old sometimes has to give up its place in the world. Yes the great tree had to be brought down, but after it had been destroyed the villagers planted the seeds, and created an entire forest of trees in the soil which the ashes from the flame had made far more fertile than it had been in many years. From the death of that one tree an entire grove of trees, all of which had the beauty that the tree which had given birth to them once had. Even more than that all of them were unique, all of them had something to be treasured. From that one sacrifice, something beautiful was brought into the world."

The boy sniffed once more and states with a saddened voice "But...The original tree was so big. It had been around for so long. How could those smaller trees hope to be as great as it?"

Pearl took note of this and hugged him a bit tighter. She then smiles at him and states "Well... I suppose that it's all subjective, but the younger trees had space to grow. They could shape themselves in whatever way they chose. At least that was what I found when I watched that tree atop the hill grow from the sapling that the villagers gave me." Steven blinked at her and states "Wait your tree came from that big one?" Pearl nodded and wiped some of the tears which had formed in the boys eyes away. Steven squirms around in Pearl's hug for a moment until he is free of Pearl's tight grip and he lies in his bed. "Thanks Pearl that was a great story."

Pearl smiled at him and stated "I was happy to share it." Pearl kissed his forehead and got up off of the bed "Good night Steven." She then calmly walks away from the bed and walks into her room in the temple. Steven lies there for a moment as he contemplates the story Pearl had shared with him before he closes his eyes and allows himself to be taken by soft hold of sleep. In her room of the temple Pearl quietly partook in her usual routine. Shining her swords, taking stock of the various supplies she had stored away in case anything in the house was damaged, ect ect. She then sits down and meditates on the pillars of water allowing the sounds of the rushing waterfalls to soothe her nerves. Several hours pass and she quietly returns to Steven's room as she had done in the past, she crawls up to the foot of Steven's bed.

She watches the boy for a few moments as he dreams. She then glances over to the portrait of Rose that they had so hastily put up just before Steven had joined them in the temple and smiles before she thinks to herself 'Thank you, for every moment we have with him.' She then carefully makes her way down the stairs and back into her room.

 **Alright, that's the story. I hope you all enjoyed it. It was certainly a learning experience for me.**


End file.
